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Akılkent
Carbon, renewable energy and climate legislation

Every kilometre is a litre, every litre an emission.

In collection vehicles the source of emissions is fuel, and the source of fuel is kilometres. Akılkent treats fuel consumption and CO₂ as part of the objective function when planning the route, reports the result per vehicle and provides input to the municipality's greenhouse gas inventory.

By habit: repeated passes on the same streetIn this diagram road 61%; fuel and CO₂ in step

Shorter road, less fuel, less emissionSchematic neighbourhood, twelve points, two routes. Three bars on the right: road, fuel, CO₂. In this diagram the Akılkent route is 61 percent of today's road; fuel and emissions fall in step.DepotUnloadingRoadFuelCO₂%100%61
Today: long road, fuel and CO₂ in stepWith Akılkent: short road; fuel and CO₂ in the objective

What does legislation ask of municipalities?

Climate Law No. 7552 obliges institutions to pursue energy efficiency, low-carbon fuels, electrification and a zero waste system. Metropolitan and provincial municipalities must prepare a Local Climate Change Action Plan by the end of 2027; under the regulation a provincial greenhouse gas inventory is prepared every year. The fuel of collection vehicles is a direct emission line in that inventory.

Climate timelineSix steps from left to right: the 2025 Climate Law, the 2026 local action plan regulation and emissions trading pilot, the 2027 deadline for local action plans, the 2028-2032 first plan period, the 2035 national emission cap, net zero in 2053.July 2025LawClimate LawNo. 75522026Plansaction plan regulation,ETS pilot period31 December 2027Deadlinelocal action planssubmitted2028–2032Deliveryfirst plan period,annual inventory2035643 Mtnational emissioncap (NDC 3.0)2053Net zeronational target
Sources: Climate Law (Official Gazette 09.07.2025), Local Climate Change Action Plan Regulation (04.08.2026), Emissions Trading System Regulation (27.08.2026), NDC 3.0 (November 2025). The Emissions Trading System is facility-based; municipal vehicle fleets are outside its scope.

From kilometres to the inventory

The emission calculation has three factors: planned kilometres, the vehicle's fuel consumption per hundred kilometres, and the emission factor per litre. Akılkent plans the first, takes the second from your vehicle type and multiplies by published factors for the third. The result is the direct emission the greenhouse gas protocol calls Scope 1.

From kilometres to the inventoryFour boxes: planned kilometres, litres from vehicle consumption, kilograms of CO₂ from the emission factor, the municipality's Scope 1 inventory.Planned routekmper vehicle,real road networkVehicle consumptionlitresrefuse truck77–100 L / 100 kmEmission factorkg CO₂2.6–2.7 kgper litreInventoryScope 1direct emissions,action plan input
Consumption range: Sousa et al. 2023 (collection vehicles 76.9 L/100 km, fleet average 100.4). Emission factor: DESNZ 2026 diesel 2.58 (B7) and 2.66 (mineral) kg CO₂e/L; EPA 10.21 kg CO₂/gallon (≈2.70 kg/L).
One litre of diesel
2.6–2.7 kg CO₂
Refuse truck consumption per hundred kilometres
77–100 L
Waste sector share of Türkiye's methane emissions
18.5%

Sources: EPA Emission Factors Hub 2022; DESNZ greenhouse gas conversion factors 2026; Sousa et al. 2023, Environmental Science and Pollution Research; TurkStat Greenhouse Gas Emission Statistics 1990–2024. The waste sector is 2.6% of total emissions; its methane share is high because landfills produce methane. Vehicle fuel falls under transport; transport is 16.5% of the total, of which 94% is road.

How much does route optimization cut emissions?

In municipal waste collection cases published in peer-reviewed journals, route optimization has cut fuel by between ten and twenty-five percent; the distance gain is usually smaller than the fuel gain because fuel also depends on gradient, load and stop-and-go. Akılkent's model analysis on a metropolitan district's data computed a reduction of thirty-four and a half percent; this is a computer result, not yet measured in the field.

Fuel reduction in peer-reviewed casesHorizontal bar chart: four published cases and the Akılkent model analysis; percentage fuel reduction.%0%10%20%30%40Izmir district, 2025Transportation Research Part D−%24,6Al Ain, UAE, 2018IOP Conference Series−%14,3Ghana, 2019Management of Environmental Quality−%10,8Sydney, 2017IJESD; 5.5 kg CO₂ per vehicle-day−%8Akılkent model analysisa metropolitan district; computer model−%34,5
Sources: Yalçınkaya and Kaleli 2025; Maraqa et al. 2018; Sulemana et al. 2019; Karimipour et al. 2017. Each study has a different baseline and measurement method; the rates are not directly comparable and are not a guarantee for your operation.

The link to renewable energy

The most tangible renewable resource in a municipality's hands is the waste itself. Close to a hundred landfill gas plants in Türkiye generate electricity from methane at disposal sites; blending at least half a percent of biodiesel made from used cooking oil into diesel is mandatory. Oil collected from a restaurant can return to the tank of the same municipality's collection vehicle.

Electric collection vehicles are not yet in Turkish municipal fleets; the first electric light truck was sold to a private company in 2024, and one district municipality is testing one charged from its solar plant. When an electric vehicle joins your fleet the plan is ready: Akılkent's electric vehicle module sets battery range as a limit on the route and places charging returns in the plan, like unloading returns. Diesel and electric vehicles are planned together.

Landfill gas plants generating electricity
97
Mandatory biodiesel blend in diesel
0.5%
From used oil to fuelA four-node loop: restaurant used oil, a planned collection route, a biodiesel plant, a collection vehicle running on blended diesel.Same district, same vehicleRestaurantused cooking oilCollectionplanned routeBiodiesellicensed plantVehicleblended diesel

Sources: BİYOYATDER sector report (September 2026); Communiqué on Blending Biodiesel into Diesel (Official Gazette 16.06.2017); Otokar e-Atlas sales report (September 2024); Schneider, Stenger and Goeke 2014, Transportation Science.

Scope of the calculation

Akılkent's calculation covers the fuel-based direct emissions of the vehicle fleet: planned kilometres multiplied by vehicle consumption and a published emission factor. Diesel and electric vehicles are in the same plan; for electric vehicles battery range and charging returns are included. The result is a calculation, not a measurement; it provides the vehicle fleet line for the municipality's greenhouse gas inventory. Electricity consumption, facilities and landfill methane are other lines of the inventory and outside this calculation. We make no percentage promises; your result is computed with your own data in the pre-analysis.

See it with your own data

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